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Sun, 21 Jan 2018 15:49:29 +0000hourly1http://wordpress.com/Comment on Attaining Titanic Power by alzriushttps://alzrius.wordpress.com/2018/01/14/attaining-titanic-power/#comment-9388
Sun, 21 Jan 2018 15:49:29 +0000http://alzrius.wordpress.com/?p=3058#comment-9388I thought about writing up a d20 translation of the Omni-Directional Movement (ODM) gear – a body-harness outfitted with a series of pneumatically-powered auto-retractable grappling lines – that characters in the series use to fight the titans. But given how that would have highlighted the issue of striking a vital point for an instant kill, which the d20 System discourages, it didn’t seem worthwhile. Ditto for the characters’ exacto-knife-style swords (complete with replaceable blades), since weapons breaking or getting stuck isn’t really a concern in most games.

To be fair, the series does have instances of humans simply blasting titans to death with sustained cannon fire, but these are shown to be a last resort. It takes sustained fire from multiple cannons – typically from an unreachable position – to bring down a single titan, which makes the tactic virtually useless against swarms of them.

You’re right about the template only being usable outdoors, though. That actually comes up in the series, as a potential countermeasure when facing enemies with this template (most of whom are too smart to let themselves be so confined if they can help it). But then again, when titans are also the main enemies being faced, battles are typically going to take place in a wide open area anyway.

Still, constantly using this template could make for a somewhat-repetitive game, admittedly, but the d20 System has a lot of monsters that are Huge or larger anyway, along with creatures who pack a proportional wallop despite their smaller size. Besides, when your druid is constantly turning into a tyrannosaurus rex, and your wizard is summoning fiendish giant crocodiles, why not let the fighter turn into a titan as well?

]]>Comment on Attaining Titanic Power by Thothhttps://alzrius.wordpress.com/2018/01/14/attaining-titanic-power/#comment-9387
Sun, 21 Jan 2018 06:56:48 +0000http://alzrius.wordpress.com/?p=3058#comment-9387Well, I haven’t actually seen the anime – and I must confess that the “one vital point” bit always makes me think of a character from Highlander (the TV series) who had a shotgun and proclaimed something along the lines of “I’m going to blow out your chest and then SAW OFF YOUR HEAD OFF WITH A POCKET KNIFE!”. Still, late-Renaissance tech does inhibit the “I don’t have to do specific damage, I just have to do ALL the damage!” approach.

The template itself looks quite effective, at least within the limitations (being incredibly conspicuous, basically being limited to the outdoors only) of any other version of “summon tank!”.

Tempest was really the only movie-exclusive character that warranted her own write-up. Although there were quite a few other members of the extended cast, none of them did enough to merit their own stat blocks. At most, they could be modeled by reskinning some low-CR d20 creatures, possibly tweaking their ability scores, and maybe giving them 6 CP per Hit Die (as quick-conversion NPCs).

The new magic items that we saw, on the other hand, were interesting enough that I might write a post about them.

]]>Comment on Eclipsing Tempest Shadow by My Little Pony Index II | Emergence Campaign Webloghttps://alzrius.wordpress.com/2017/12/11/eclipsing-tempest-shadow/#comment-9234
Thu, 14 Dec 2017 18:01:05 +0000http://alzrius.wordpress.com/?p=3025#comment-9234[…] Tempest Shadow: The movie antagonist escapes into d20, rather than remaining to face the friendship… […]
]]>Comment on Eclipsing Tempest Shadow by Thothhttps://alzrius.wordpress.com/2017/12/11/eclipsing-tempest-shadow/#comment-9233
Thu, 14 Dec 2017 17:53:24 +0000http://alzrius.wordpress.com/?p=3025#comment-9233That is a nice skirmisher build – and fits in nicely with the generally “slightly superhuman” nature of ponies. I’m afraid that I haven’t seen the movie though, so I can’t say much about that part…

Now I’ll have to update the index again… Oh the horror!

]]>Comment on A Level One Rarity by Eclipsing Tempest Shadow | Intelligence Checkhttps://alzrius.wordpress.com/2014/06/07/a-level-one-rarity/#comment-9205
Tue, 12 Dec 2017 03:55:28 +0000http://alzrius.wordpress.com/?p=1830#comment-9205[…] a 5th-level character with a highly combative focus, Tempest is a force beyond what your average pony could possibly hope to face. At the same time, she’s not a match for what the alicorns can […]
]]>Comment on Celestial Aspirations by Eclipsing Tempest Shadow | Intelligence Checkhttps://alzrius.wordpress.com/2014/06/16/celestial-aspirations/#comment-9204
Tue, 12 Dec 2017 03:55:25 +0000http://alzrius.wordpress.com/?p=1864#comment-9204[…] As a major antagonist in an epic film, Tempest has a large point buy for her ability scores, albeit not quite as much as Princess Celestia. […]
]]>Comment on How Magic Works in My Little Pony: Equestria Girls by My Little Pony Index II | Emergence Campaign Webloghttps://alzrius.wordpress.com/2017/10/01/how-magic-works-in-my-little-pony-equestria-girls/#comment-8957
Mon, 02 Oct 2017 16:48:21 +0000http://alzrius.wordpress.com/?p=3005#comment-8957[…] The Magic of Equestria Girls: What rules magic seems to have in the Equestria Girls series. Commentary: Equestria Girls as Magical Girls. […]
]]>Comment on How Magic Works in My Little Pony: Equestria Girls by Thothhttps://alzrius.wordpress.com/2017/10/01/how-magic-works-in-my-little-pony-equestria-girls/#comment-8956
Mon, 02 Oct 2017 16:45:20 +0000http://alzrius.wordpress.com/?p=3005#comment-8956Alas! now I must add another article to the index…

I haven’t actually seen any “Equestria Girls” material beyond a couple of online videos, but that certainly sounds reasonable enough to me.

Of course, to speculate wildly from that lack of information… there’s more levitation and light-and-music displays than bouncing around, but most of the “magical blasts” in the clips I’ve seen seem to be nothing much more than briefly stunning – magical versions of slap-fights. I think I’d probably run such a game using “Magical Girls” rules.

]]>Comment on Further Musing on Celestial Aspirations by How Magic Works in My Little Pony: Equestria Girls | Intelligence Checkhttps://alzrius.wordpress.com/2015/02/28/further-musing-on-celestial-aspirations/#comment-8952
Sun, 01 Oct 2017 20:19:59 +0000http://alzrius.wordpress.com/?p=2250#comment-8952[…] animated shorts and music videos represent the totality of the series canon (since, as I’ve discussed previously, secondary materials aren’t very reliable). By contrast, its parent series has well over one […]
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